Help from Down Under

BRITISHVOLT, hailed as a prime example of the government’s success in securing UK business investment, went into administration last month.

The electric car battery manufacturer had hoped to build a £3.8 billion (€4.3 billion) factory near Blyth in Northumberland with government funding if it found investors.

This would have met the demand for electric vehicles ready for the UK’s 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars. Instead Britishvolt collapsed after a rescue bid by

Going further

THE H2Med pipeline sending green hydrogen from Spain and Portugal to France is to be extended to Germany.

It enters into the road map on hydrogen recently revealed in an announcement from the French and German governments as they increase investment in the latest technologies, particularly renewables and low carbon energies.

The H2Med undersea pipeline between Barcelona and Marseilles, expected to be operational by 2030, will carry hydrogen that has been produced via renewable energy.

It is expected to transport up to two million metric tons of green hydrogen a year.

several investors fell through, with most of its 300 employees immediately made redundant.

Now help could be at hand following a non­bind­ ing offer from Recharge Industries, an Australian startup linked to New Yorkbased investment firm Scale Facilitation, which intends to build a battery factory in Geelong, the former car manufacturing centre near Melbourne.

Thanks to Australia’s mineral deposits, the proposed lithium­ion plant would not be dependent on Chinese or Russian materials and risk supply chain holdups.

A Britishvolt deal “made strategic sense” Geelongborn David Collard, Scale Facilitation’s founder and chief

Four-day week

THE four­day week has become more likely thanks to the pandemic when both employers and employees began to rethink workplace flexibility.

One fewer working day doesn’t mean less work or a pay cut, however, as employees are paid the same, receive the same benefits and maintain the same workload.

Proponents hail the four­day week, arguing that if worker satisfaction increases, so will productivity, and Spain has already started a trial phase after the government launched a modest programme project in December..

The Spanish pilot scheme is a test to see if productivity will be boosted, as its advocates maintain. Meanwhile participating companies can receive aid from a €10 million government fund, although they will be expected to come up with ways of increasing productivity, Spain’s Industry Ministry Reyes Maroto said.

BREWERS Mahou have finally won their eight­year battle with Spain’s tax authority, Hacienda.

The Supreme Court in Madrid has cancelled the €1.08 million fine that Hacienda imposed on Mahou in December 2014, owing to what it saw as irregularities in the Corporation Tax (IS) the company paid during 2008 and 2009.

The disagreement between Hacienda and Mahou centred on calculations for advertising and publicity spending on major events.

In 2021, the National High Court in Madrid confirmed a 2018 ruling backing Mahou, prompting the brewer to lodge its successful appeal to the Supreme Court.

More prizes

executive told the international media.

Referring to the spirit of Aukus ­ the trilateral security pact between the UK, Australia and the US ­ Collard said that strengthening connections with “our friends in the UK” was in the general interest “especially when most others are kicking them when they’re down.”

Rob Fitzpatrick, Recharge Industries’ chief executive, explained that should the offer proceed, the operation would also provide the Australian company with greater access to Europe.

Speeding up

SPAIN’S car factories are gradually upping production but they are still far from returning to pre­pandemic levels.

According to the country’s Association of Automobile and Heavy Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfac), Spain’s automotive industry produced 2.2 million new vehicles last year, 21 per cent below their output for 2019.

Anfac’s director general, Jose LopezTafall, revealed that although the flow of raw materials had improved, together with the availability of chips, many plants were having to endure interruptions to their supply chains and were obliged to work at a reduced rhythm.

Despite these problems, production increased by 5.8 per cent last year, compared with 2021 with a ‘significant’ 18.9 per cent improvement in December.

PREMIUM BOND holders now have a greater chance of a win after National Savings and Investments (NS&I) upped the prize fund rate from 3 to 3.15 per cent. The new rate, a 14­year high, comes into force from February onwards.

Premium Bonds earn no interest but instead the interest rate funds the monthly tax­free draw. The bonds are the UK’s biggest savings product, with more than 21 million participants investing £119 billion (€137 billion) in them.

Nevertheless, the chance of each £1 (€1.13) bond proving a winner is still fixed at 24,000 to 1, since the number of prizes worth between £50 (€56.75) and £100,000 (€113,472) will increase in the next draw, but there will be fewer £25 (€28.38) prizes.